Back to School…Teeange Style

I must say that every year back to school gets more technological, more frustrating and I am getting an ever growing sense that I might be old school…

So last year our school system launched a new form of registration…completely online…through a program called Aeries. In theory, I like the idea. Everything they usually send for registration is put in my son’s individual profile. It can also be used to check grades (and how his assignments are going), see where he stands on graduation requirements, update contact information, medical information and more. You can even set it up to give you weekly updates on your child. As I said, in theory, pretty cool.

In reality, it is very confusing. There are very little instructions on the site, which makes figuring out what to do and to be sure you are doing it right a major challenge. The paperwork states that it still requires several pages be printed and signed and apparently this is a MUST! BUT there is an overall acknowledgment page that list all the pages that are supposed to be printed for you to initial…never sure if this is the cover for all the pages that are printed and signed or is this a single page to cover all. And despite the fact that this is the second year of this online registration, there is still no clarification on this. I ask what is a parent supposed to do other than both. I end up with a huge stack of papers and my acknowledgement sheet. Frankly, I often feel like I am doing double duty. As I said, confusing.

However, I must admit, I LOVE the electronic copies. No more inch plus thick file for each year of school.

Then there is registration day itself. If your teenager is anything like mine, you probably heard, “But no one else’s parents are coming to registration!” I will agree that there were a few students that didn’t have parents in tow but two-thirds of the students did. My guess, those parents were just like my husband and I…they realized their teen is a typical teen and probably won’t get everything done that they should at registration. Or, like me, they wanted full control over their checkbook.

School shopping is a riot too! I missed the days that school supply lists were either sent before school or given at registration. It made shopping so much easier and timely. So what our family does is to make sure our son has the basics for the first day…pen, pencil, calculator, notebook paper, planner and binder. We have our son go through his current supplies and make a list of the things he knows he needs like one pair of jeans, two to three new t-shirts, packs of paper, highlighters, post-its, and so on. Then we move into a holding pattern…kind of like an airplane holding for the clearance to land. Hurry up and wait.

Then, after the first day, we go on a hunt because every parent of a student in the high school of 3000 plus kids are on a do or die mission for the same school supplies! And of course, they are due the next day!

It’s always fun around here at the beginning of the year and as my little man gets older, it also gets more amusing! If you have a teenager, how does your back to school go?